Which versions of Quicken support Betterment account balance info

Gabe Tech

In the forum I see year old references to limited support for Betterment data. Some references include an fdir.txt showing that Betterment is included with express web connect support

But but I can't find that configuration in my fidir.txt for Windows Quicken Home and Business.

Is this a Quicken for Mac version only fidir.txr file? Or maybe a beta feature that was not shipped? Or is it some deficiency when using Home and Business?

I may but a different version to support Betterment? 

Chris_QPW

EDIT, fixed the URL for the Quicken Mac financial list.

Here is the online version of the Windows financial list:
https://ofx-prod-filist.intuit.com/qw2800/data/fidir.txt
And here is the one for Mac:
https://ofx-prod-filist.intuit.com/qm2400/data/fidir.txt

What I notice about the Betterment entries in both is that only the Mac version has INVESTMENT, which means only it has support for investment information.

And awhile back I know that Quicken Mac got "limited support" for a lot more investment financial institutions.  "Limited" being that it has support for "Simple Investing Mode" only.

So far Quicken Windows has never gotten support for these financial institutions.

Chris_QPW

BK said:

@Chris_QPW , Doing an Add Account and type Betterment, nothing is displayed.

That is to be expected in Quicken Windows.
Here is the line from Quicken Windows:

08972	08972	08972	Betterment	https://www.betterment.com/	(646) 600-8263	https://www.betterment.com/login	ACTIVE	 	 	 	ACCOUNTINFO&EXP-WEB-CONNECT	NOT_QBP	NA

All it has is: ACCOUNTINFO&EXP-WEB-CONNECT

Account info isn't any kind of "downloading".  Why it is there are at all I don't know.

Here is what Quicken Mac has:

ACCOUNTINFO,INVESTMENT&EXP-WEB-CONNECT

Chris_QPW

EDIT, fixed the URL for the Quicken Mac financial list.

Here is the online version of the Windows financial list:
https://ofx-prod-filist.intuit.com/qw2800/data/fidir.txt
And here is the one for Mac:
https://ofx-prod-filist.intuit.com/qm2400/data/fidir.txt

What I notice about the Betterment entries in both is that only the Mac version has INVESTMENT, which means only it has support for investment information.

And awhile back I know that Quicken Mac got "limited support" for a lot more investment financial institutions.  "Limited" being that it has support for "Simple Investing Mode" only.

So far Quicken Windows has never gotten support for these financial institutions.

BK

@Chris_QPW , Doing an Add Account and type Betterment, nothing is displayed.

Chris_QPW

BK said:

@Chris_QPW , Doing an Add Account and type Betterment, nothing is displayed.

That is to be expected in Quicken Windows.
Here is the line from Quicken Windows:

08972	08972	08972	Betterment	https://www.betterment.com/	(646) 600-8263	https://www.betterment.com/login	ACTIVE	 	 	 	ACCOUNTINFO&EXP-WEB-CONNECT	NOT_QBP	NA

All it has is: ACCOUNTINFO&EXP-WEB-CONNECT

Account info isn't any kind of "downloading".  Why it is there are at all I don't know.

Here is what Quicken Mac has:

ACCOUNTINFO,INVESTMENT&EXP-WEB-CONNECT

BK

Thanks for pointing out the differences.

RE: Why it is there are at all I don't know.

My thinking too exactly.

Chris_QPW

One thing I just thought of what it might be for.  It could be a "placeholder".  They planned to put in support in the future, but it hasn't happened yet.

jacobs

Bettermint and the other newer financial institutions (like Robinhood) added for Quicken Mac are intended to support "simple" investment tracking — market value only, but not detailed transactions. But I'm not sure how well it has worked, as many people have reported getting no data.

Here's what the former Quicken Mac product manager said at the time this feature was turned on last December:

"Previously Quicken Mac only supported Direct Connect investment accounts which worked fine if you had a brokerage account from a long-established brokerage such as Schwab, Fidelity, or Vanguard. Unfortunately, none of the new brokerage companies supported the infrastructure required for Direct Connect investments so you previously couldn't add these accounts. We've just turned this on in v6.4 and v6.5 so you will now be able to add Robinhood, Betterment, and others.  In many cases, you will only be able to get the market value for the account but at least this will allow you to track your true net worth. You now have access to an additional 800 financial institutions but the quality of each of these connections will be different depending on the institution.  Let us know which ones are working for you and which ones aren't."

Gabe Tech

thank you Jacobs, this is exactly the context I was looking for. I also appreciate the technical fidir.txt difference validation. 

I hadn't realized that Quicken for Mac was really a significantly different product to the point of different money features. 

I have my answer. 

I can't help but wonder why QMac would would have diverged from QWin like this.

 [extra tech] I think I saw a comment about using OSX's keystore to store some credentials. But it's still relayed via quicken as an intermediary of Quicken web services. Maybe it is some sort of OS specific secret management requirement that OSX keystore satisfies that Windows doesn't. if so, I can appreciate that Quicken would have trouble asserting that credential storage on windows is "fine" for users today, but not able to support these 800 additional institutions via open banking or whatever is used to get basic value information.

For what it's worth, I just would like to better 1)  account for current net worth it in betterment.
2) Have my scheduled transfers from checking to betterment reconcile. 

Chris_QPW

Gabe Tech said:

I can't help but wonder why QMac would would have diverged from QWin like this.

@jacobs can give you the full history on this, but this is my "short" take on it.

First off Quicken Windows and Quicken Mac were always different products to some degree.
It seems from the early complaints that Quicken Mac was some kind of "port" from Quicken Windows because Quicken Mac users complained that it was "Windows like" not "Mac like".  So, Quicken Mac 2007 and below where the closest to say Quicken Windows Deluxe, but still they were different.  And this was one reason to start a rewrite of it.  Another reason stated was because the code was getting unmanageable.

But the main reason is Apple.  Apple obsoleted the libraries Quicken Mac was based so it had to be rewritten.  This was a major undertaking with the stated goal to make it Mac like.

The bottom line is that because various hiccups and such it has been a work in progress since 2006 when they started that total rewrite, and the goal was never to make them identical.

Oh, and one more thing, back in 2006 when Mac's market share was much smaller some of the financial institutions just didn't even want to support.  There were many cases where Quicken Windows would be supported, but not Quicken Mac.

Val Anne Beth Welch

I have Quicken for Mac and a Betterment account. Previously, Betterment did not show up in the drop down list of accounts that I could add to an internet connection. But when I checked again, Betterment DID show up in the list. So I tried to add it, but hit a dead end when it rejected my username and password (dialog said I must have mistyped it). I went through some troubleshooting with a Quicken support person, but still came up with the same result. I was told to contact Betterment and I did. I was told twice via email that Betterment DOES NOT support Quicken AT ALL by two different Betterment reps. So I don't know what to think at this point. Either the people at Betterment have no clue or Quicken has no clue. All I know is that Betterment shows in the drop-down list for SOME reason. I just don't know what that is.

jacobs

If Betterment is telling you it's a no-go, multiple times, I'd think that would be the final word. (Well, at least for now.) Quicken's aggregation/connectivity provider, Intuit, added it to the list, but I don't think there's any way to find out why. Is it there as a mistake? Is it something coming in the future? Chances are that front-line support representatives at Quicken and at Betterment won't be able to answer that.